


Treasures

by mmmdraco



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-23
Updated: 2012-11-23
Packaged: 2017-11-19 08:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Christmas Eve, Anna and John take a walk outside in the late hours of the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treasures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [adrenalin211](https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrenalin211/gifts).



The night air was brisk where it hit their exposed skin, but Anna didn't care. It could freeze her and it wouldn't take away the happiness of the moment; of having her husband back for Christmas. He had an arm curled around her waist that tucked into her pocket and she smiled brightly at him. "I doubted for a long while that this moment would happen."

"Well, my dear," John said as he led her around the small garden at a leisurely pace, "I couldn't doubt it. Not once I had seen your resolve. You have done so much for me-"

She turned and stopped his mouth with first the tip of one finger and then her lips. She pulled away, cheeks hot, though she suspected windburn in addition to the flutter the kiss gave to her heart. "We are married. We do for each other whatever needs to be done."

"And what would you have me do for you, Anna?" He cupped her face in his palm; his expression serious.

"I would have you love me."

He pushed a wisp of her hair back behind her ear only to have the wind snatch it back. "That isn't nearly enough for what you have endured for me."

"But, it is." She pulled away and went walking toward a large tree along the edge of the yard whose thin, bare branches stretched up as if trying to rearrange the stars. "I endured for years without love, and I had believed that I was gone beyond all hope of finding it, and now that I have known it, I find it bolsters me so greatly that my endurance can no longer be called into question. With your love, I am capable of anything I might set my mind toward."

John worked his knee back and forth a moment before following her, leaning on his cane, his eyes narrowed. "I find it hard to be so romantic about love after what I've been through." His gaze caught Anna's and his expression softened. "I could be forced to admit that it isn't nearly as difficult to do so when I have you here in front of me, though."

Her face quirked into a smile that tugged her reddened cheeks almost impossibly high. "And what sort of force might be needed for that?"

He grasped her waist and pulled her forward and kissed her soundly and solidly and with all of the passion that had seemed to ebb from him during his incarceration. Each fresh touch of her skin to his own emboldened him further until she pushed him away with a gasp. "I am... I'm quite sorry. I was overcome with you."

Her laughter seemed to ring in the air before another breeze dampered it. "And since when is kissing your wife anything to be sorry about? I was merely running out of patience with this wind. We should go to sit by the fire."

John blinked quickly as he looked at her with a smile. "We should watch the snow for a bit."

"But the sky is perfectly clear and- Oh!" The light from the moon and the stars caught the facets of the tiny snowflakes that began to drift down between them. "I hadn't even thought to wish for snow for Christmas."

"Is snow at Christmas such a luxury that it must be wished for?"

She pulled her arms against her front and pressed herself to his chest. "Perhaps not, but I don't know that I've even put thought to it before now this year. I've spent all of my time wishing and hoping for you to be returned to me. Now that you have been, I almost feel as though I have to wait a long while before I'm allowed to have any more wishes."

Letting his arms wrap around her shoulders, he pressed a soft kiss to the side of her head just under the brim of her hat. "But your wishes are worth their weight in gold, my dear. Without them, this poor wretch would only be dreaming of you without the luxury of enjoying as inane a thing as the weather." He felt her shiver in his embrace. "I don't mean to keep you out here talking if you truly are that cold. Come, let us do as you asked and sit by the fire. The soot and sparks will fall as snowflakes do and we can play pretend."

Anna laughed as she looked up at him with shining eyes. "Am I really so lucky that I get to spend forever with you?"

"Forever isn't always a matter of 'until the end of time'."

"A year, an hour, a moment... However much time I end up having with you is still more than I thought I would get, and each breath more that I get to take with you is a blessing."

John took her arm and turned them toward their small cottage. "The blessing is not only your own." His cane struck a stone in the ground and he stumbled slightly; just a shake of his leg as he walked and no more, but he felt her arm stiffen to hold him, and then loosen again as he regained his pace. "You are a treasure," he said as the wind died off as they pulled closer to the cottage.

Pausing at the door, Anna let her hand linger just over the doorknob. "I was hidden, and you found me."

He reached under her hand and opened the door with her fingers curving around his wrist. "We found each other."

With the door closed, they took the time to hang hats and shrug out of coats and slip off gloves and shiver in the cold entryway before seating themselves in front of the fire on the loveseat. As the fire crackled beside them, Anna found herself leaning closer and closer to John. "It feels strange not to be at Downton for Christmas."

"Did you want to be there?" His arm wrapped around her shoulders as he let his cane drop to the floor beside him.

She shook her head before letting it rest against his shoulder. "No. I find that I'm exactly where I want to be: with you."

John smiled at her and placed a kiss on her brow. "We've been invited up for tomorrow evening."

Anna raised her head. "We have?"

"I wasn't certain that you would want to go."

She placed her head back against his shoulder. "Well, neither am I. But it is good to be wanted, isn't it?"

He pulled her even closer. "I shall never let you want for wanting for the rest of time that I'm able."

Her lips touched his as the clock on the mantle struck midnight. She pulled away softly and said in a gentle murmur, "Merry Christmas, John."

His reply, "Merry Christmas, Anna," got lost upon her lips.


End file.
